Mother's Day at Citi Field
by missy52061
Summary: A future Mother's Day for Kate Beckett Castle. As always, I don't own Castle, I just wish I did.


**A/N: I actually wrote this last year, after spending Mother's Day at Citi Field. It hit me how much my late mother would have loved to spend the day watching a baseball game with her family, and I thought Kate Beckett would love that too. And in my world, the Becketts are Mets fans.**

Six year old James Richard Castle was ready for a day at Citi Field. He had his lucky Mets shirt on under his Mets jersey and his favorite Mets hat on his head. He really loved his mom, because when Dad asked her what she wanted to do for Mother's Day this year, she had told him she wanted to go to Citi Field to watch the Mets. But as far as he could tell, he was the only member of his family that was ready. "Dad," he called out. "C'mon. Let's go!"

"Hold your horses, buddy; we've got plenty of time." Rick stepped out of the kitchen and grinned at the sight of his son. Kate maintained that Jaime was his mini-me and right now he could understand why. Besides the over the top dramatics, Jamie's blue eyes and shock of brown hair marked him as Rick's son. His grin sealed the deal.

"Hey Mom! Are you ready too?" Jaime asked. Rick turned around to see Kate coming down the stairs with three year old Hannah Rose. Kate had a Mets shirt on that covered the small baby bump. Baby number three was due in 4 months. Hannah looked adorable in a Mets dress.

"Hey Babe," she said, "can you take her? I want to make sure we have all our stuff."

"Take my best girl? I'd love to," Rick grinned at Hannah.

"Daddy! We are going to a baseball game," the little one exclaimed. Rick nodded yes at his daughter. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Jamie went to open it, and was excited to see his grandmother. After exchanging hellos, Jamie started talking a mile a minute to his grandmother, mostly about baseball. Martha still didn't think of baseball as anything exciting but she loved hearing her grandson talk. They were buddies, had been since the moment Rick placed him in her arms.

Kate came out of the kitchen with the baby's bag slung over her shoulder. "Everybody ready?" Jamie's "yeah!" was the loudest and Kate led them out the door, Rick bringing up the rear.

The drive to Citi Field didn't take long. "Let's head to our seats." Rick said, pocketing his phone. "Alexis just texted me. She and Grandpa are waiting for us." Off they went.

Jamie loved this part of the day – his first view of the field. He loved walking out of the semi-darkness of the concourse and seeing the very green grass of the field. Then he saw his grandpa. "Grandpa! Hey, do you think the Mets are going to win today?"

"Hey James!" his grandpa replied. "They've got a chance." While the two of them discussed the game, Alexis greeted the rest of the family.

"Hi! And let me see this pretty little girl you've got there. Hi, Miss Hannah!" Hannah reached out for her big sister.

"Lex! Hi Lex!" Alexis may be old enough to be Hannah's mother, but they had a special bond.

"Hey Pumpkin," Rick said. "Where's Mike?"

"Oh, he had to go into work, but he's hopeful he'll make it here by the third inning."

"Oh," her little brother said. "Did he have a body drop?"

Kate laughed. "You are a son of a cop, that's for sure."

Alexis answered Jamie, "No, just going over some stuff for court tomorrow. He didn't want to miss out on hanging out with you, buddy!"

Mike did indeed make it to the stadium by the third inning. His brother-in-law (and boy was it weird to think of a six year old as a brother-in-law but somehow it worked) grabbed him and made him sit next to him. "Hey Mike," Jamie said. "Do you want to know what you missed?"

Mike knew Jaime wanted to tell him everything so he said "Sure buddy. Tell me – how'd the Mets score?" Between his mom and his grandpa, James knew a lot about baseball and he gave Mike a blow-by-blow description of each scoring play.

Kate Beckett Castle just sat back in her seat and watched her family. Yes, it was weird to want to spend Mother's Day at a baseball game, but this was special to her. All the people she loved, happy, healthy, together and enjoying the day. If you had asked young Detective Kate Beckett what would make her happy, she never could have dreamed of this – her dad, sitting next to her son and her son-in-law, talking baseball. Her husband AKA Richard Castle, her favorite author, sitting next to his mother, the Broadway diva Martha Rodgers and a person very dear to Kate's heart, just talking about anything and everything. Her young daughter sitting on her big sister's lap, the two of them giggling together over plans for a tea party. Kate rubbed her baby bump, thinking of the new baby. Yes, young Kate Beckett never thought of more than getting the person responsible for her mom's death, but Kate Castle knew how lucky she was. "Hey Mom," she thought to herself. "Thanks for being such a great mom to me even when I wasn't easy to be with. If I can be half the mom you were, my kids will be lucky." Just then, a little breeze came through, and Kate almost felt like it was her mom saying "you're welcome". Yes indeed, Rick Castle had rubbed off on her – but in the best way possible. He made her believe in magic.


End file.
